You’re Invited! Code for Seattle Event Tomorrow Night at Socrata

Interested in open data, civic hacking, or want to learn to code? Tomorrow night, Code for Seattle is meeting at the Socrata offices for Civic Hacking night from 5:45 – 9:00 pm and you’re invited.

We’d like the civic developer community in Seattle to be every bit as vibrant as Chicago’s or New York’s.

Socrata will provide the space and snacks so that locals can dig through machine-readable data on city, state, and county open data portals. The goal is to create new apps and answers to the regions challenges.

We spoke with the event’s organizer, Seth Vincent, about Code for Seattle. He says the group is made up of mostly software developers but also includes designers, activists, writers, and other non-techy types. He’s interested in open data because it allows citizens to be more engaged in local governance. And, he thinks Seattle is bound for civic hacking glory. Why?

“Seattle is strong set of technical companies, and many who work at those companies are looking for ways to give back to their community,” says Vincent.

Socrata’s Vice President of Product, Saf Rabah, agrees. He says, “We’d like the civic developer community in Seattle to be every bit as vibrant as Chicago’s or New York’s. We’re ‘spoiled’ because we have the support of the state, the county, and the city. Let’s make it happen!”

Who can hack? Anyone interested in improving the resources available to residents of Seattle, says Vincent. He continues, “It takes more than coders, but also people interested in and experienced with design, outreach, policy, and more.”

If you have ideas for how to improve life in the Northwest, there is likely a way that open data can play a role. Get started by checking out the open data portals for City of Seattle, King County, and the State of Washington.